Some 20% of the global commercial e-mail market will be using a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform by the end of 2012, according to a report released by Gartner.
The global research firm says the SaaS e-mail market represented 1% of the commercial e-mail market in 2007.
Gartner analysts claim the impact of the SaaS model for e-mail will have direct consequences for traditional third-party product vendors, by cutting the market for traditional applications by one-fifth. However, by 2012, Gartner says the move to the SaaS model for e-mail will create opportunities for new third-party applications.
Matt Cain, research VP at Gartner, says: “The lost opportunity to the traditional third-party market may be more than 20%, because the earliest adopters of the e-mail SaaS model are small or midsize businesses (SMEs), which can represent up to 40% of the market when measured by the number of companies which are likely prospects. However, SMEs are less likely to buy third-party tools compared to larger organisations.”
Cain says opportunities for third-parties will be via acquisition by SaaS vendors, which will fill in missing platform gaps, as has already been the case with Google and Postini, Cisco and Ironport, and Microsoft and Frontbridge.
According to Gartner, there are four general categories within the third-party community for e-mail services that will be affected to a greater or lesser extent by the move to the SaaS model for e-mail. These include applications core to running premises-based e-mail, applications extending core services, client-side applications and SaaS management tools.
There will also be an impact on the hardware market, and 20% fewer on-premises e-mail seats will mean fewer sales opportunities for server vendors, according to Gartner. SaaS providers are likely to build their own servers or move to a single source model.
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